Webkinz Wiki:Style and Formatting
WW:SAF redirects here This article covers information on proper style and formatting rules. For formatting of individual sections please see the links below. The WebkinzWiki is a project to document and organize the world of Webkinz as effectively as possible in the form of a wiki. Everyone is welcome to contribute! An important part of creating such an exhaustive source of information is ensuring that the content is delivered in a pleasing and consistent manner. In order to achieve this, the WebkinzWiki community has worked to produce some standards on the format of the wiki. As they currently stand these standards are not set in stone, but they are considered 'good policy' and are recommended guidelines. Getting started Articles can generally describe *an object, such as food, furniture or clothing *a Non-Player Character, such as Tabby Von Meow or Mrs. Birdy *a location *a guide on how to do something, such as a game or contest *a collection of all of the above in a category All are welcome to update the wiki. But before you write your article, it's best to double check that an article does not already exist on the subject. You can do so by making use of the search bar on the left. If you are unsure, make use of the discussion link that appears at the top of every article, allowing you to discuss that article. If you click on a red link you will be prompted with the choice to start writing a new article on the subject. You can also start a new article by clicking on the "edit" link at the top of an article with no content. Unknown information In some cases, you won't have all the information at hand. If this is the case, please do not fill in information with guesses or approximations. No information at all is better than inaccurate information! This is especially true for numerical details, such as scoring, but might not always apply to descriptions. If you can only remember an approximate description then in most cases this may suffice, but please use your discretion. Please omit sections that you do not have the information about. For example, most arcade games should have an "Trophy" section. If you don't know how to acquire a trophy, then please do not fill in this section with "to be completed" or "unknown". Instead, simply leave the section out and readers will understand that this information is not yet known. Article naming Whenever applicable, the exact wording and capitalization should match whatever is used by the game. If it is more common among players to use a different name than the official in-game name, make the player-slang a redirect. Disambiguating article names When multiple things have the same name but are to be placed in different articles, use disambiguation tags, like this: Name (disambiguation tag). The disambiguation tags should be sufficiently specific to distinguish each article sharing the same name, but no more specific than necessary. If the popularity/usage/commonality of one of the things that compete for the same name overwhelmingly dominates the others, its article may simply be named as Name without disambiguation. In all cases, the Name article should contain, at the very top of the page, links to all the Name (disambiguation tag) articles. Format and style The following sections are brief summaries of some common formatting and styling issues. General notes When working on an article, there are some points to consider. Try to think about whether this article topic is too generic. If the topic of the article you are working on is too generic then it is likely to grow extremely large. To avoid this try splitting the article up into its constituent parts. For example, an article on games in Webkinz World doesn't need to contain details of every game in the arcade. Looking at the headings of sections in an article is a good indication of how the article can be split up. Linking When writing an article, linking to the current article from itself will embolden the text within the link. For example WebkinzWiki:Style and formatting in any other article will produce a link, but in this article it will appear bolded like this: WebkinzWiki:Style and formatting. After discussion, it has been decided that linking to articles from within articles is preferable, as it produces semantically accurate documents. When making links to other articles, it's best to only link the first instance of a word for each section or portion of the article. So if you are talking about games, then don't link to that page every time you repeat the word 'games'. Only repeat the link in a different section that's considerably further down the page from the initial link. This also applies when making 'recursive' links, or links from the current article to the current article, as in the above example. Upper and lower case When in doubt, use lower case. This includes article headings, article titles, and category names. Boxes Many articles that discuss an item or location in the game make use of boxes. At the moment only the item box had been rigorously standardized, but games, locations and pets are currently undergoing a similar process. In order to avoid confusion, the following colors should be used: When designing new boxes, try to pick colors that differ as much as possible from those already in place, but are still light enough that you can read black text on top of it. Try to keep to the list of accepted X11 color names. Structure and organization The following sections provides general guidelines on the structure and organization of an article. Introductory text Articles should not begin with a subsection containing general descriptions. Such introductory text should be in "section 0" of the article, that is, the top of the article before any section headings. Such text will be displayed at the top of an article, before the table of contents (if there is one). Articles should generally not begin with sections. Categorization Category links should be placed at the end of an article. Since actual category links appear at the bottom of a page, it is more logical for the category links to be located at the bottom. Consult each of the separate guidelines pages for more guidelines regarding categorization. Having the category links at the top of an article has the side effect of causing unnecessary white spaces (i.e. blanks) when spaced incorrectly. Ordering The order of different elements within a article help maintain consistency across articles of the same nature. *'Sections:' Follow the order and names specified in the appropriate guidelines. *'Pets:' Golden Retriever, Koala, Persian Cat, Pink Poodle, Reindeer. (in alphabetical order) Other notes *When archiving keep to Page_name/Archive_X, X being the number *When documenting availability (of pets, items, games, etc), use the name retired or inactive instead of the name of the location in which the article subject is found. Use location names only when discussing history or active subjects. Category:Helping out